Table of Contents
South African television producer Duma ka Ndlovu, the creator of the long-running soap opera Muvhango, will stand trial next year in a R26 million ($1.6 million) tax fraud case after prosecutors refused his request to have the charges withdrawn.
Ndlovu and his tax practitioner, Maxwell Mloyi, appeared briefly in the specialized commercial crime court at Palm Ridge, east of Johannesburg, on Nov. 11. The National Prosecuting Authority had rejected their representations to drop the case, and the matter was postponed to Feb. 9 for formal pre-trial proceedings.
The pair face 18 counts of fraud, along with charges of tax evasion and contraventions of the Tax Administration Act.
The state's case
Prosecutors allege that Ndlovu and Mloyi conspired to defraud the South African Revenue Service through false tax declarations. The state says Ndlovu's company, then called Ambrobite and now known as Kanoboya Consulting, failed to declare income it earned from subcontracted work for consulting firm Bain & Co. between 2013 and 2016.
The company was declared dormant in its tax returns from 2013 to 2017 even though it was receiving payments, the state alleges.
The case is being handled by the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption, a unit of the NPA. Henry Mamothame, the directorate's spokesman, said a review panel now examining its cases had confirmed that the prosecution of Ndlovu "was properly authorised."
The directorate's cases have come under scrutiny following allegations that it targeted senior police officers.
Bail and travel
Ndlovu and Mloyi plan to ask the court to relax their bail conditions so they can travel outside Gauteng province and abroad in December. That application will be heard on Dec. 3.
Producer and playwright
Ndlovu is a poet, playwright and producer who spent years in New York, where he staged South African theater, before returning home to work in television. He created Muvhango, which first aired on SABC 2 in 1997 and became one of the country's longest-running television dramas, built around a Venda royal family and a Johannesburg business dynasty.
Figures were converted at R16.6 to the dollar.
The intelligence satisfies curiosity. The paid briefings satisfy strategy.
Every Monday, Elite subscribers receive an Investor Memo breaking down the deal, the structure and the positioning behind the week's most consequential African wealth story — the kind of analysis that doesn't appear anywhere else.
Twice a month, a Wealth Intelligence brief profiles a single billionaire's holdings, cash flows and expansion pipeline in detail no public source matches.
→ Executive ($25/mo): Daily newsletter + Deep-Dive Reports
→ Elite ($75/mo): Everything above + Investor Memos + Wealth Intelligence + Quarterly Analyst Briefings
Subscribe now
